He speaketh truth, that F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Anyway, just had to share this shirt. I want one.

Long overdue life update time...

My gosh, I am just the laziest. There is no excuse whatsoever for my having not posted anything more than a map and an anecdotal brain fart in the last month. Thus far all resolves to keep this thing alive have allowed themselves to sink below the waves of constant distraction. I would like to call it 'Life', the convenient fallback of choice, but it really is just sheer laziness. Discipline and I, we've never been all that chummy, bar the few times I get my head above water in a sea of TV, going out, timewasting online games and the sadly occasional book.

Ok, hold up a sec. Even I will have to concede that I may be being a tad harsher on myself than is necessary. This last couple months have been among my most creative in a very long time and for the first time in years, I actually feel more like a whole person again. I feel less like something is missing or that I’m not doing something I should, I actually feel like me. That is an amazing feeling. True, the genuine validation of my ability to express myself both eloquently and hopefully actually connect with a reader, along with some very, very kind encouragement from some truly awesome people, has been quite the boost! I guess what I should be lamenting is this place’s poor upkeep. Literary (I laugh) blog gardener, I am not.

Remedying now. Self-deprecating rant over, it’s update time. Prepare for long-winded rambling!

* Work-wise, I last updated this when I was still working at the DCRC and marvelling at the fact that not all offices are invariably inhabited by assholes. It was quite the eye-opener and now, having moved to NDARC, my amazement continues. I work full-time now, people, full-time! This was not something I would have considered ever doing again for a very long time, but the fact is I like working here so much, I decided that health and time could maybe take a backseat for a while as I attempted to, y’know, earn more dosh and do so at a place that didn’t make me want to kill myself (here I will disclaim Market. That place was awesome, it just wasn’t enough hours. If I’d had my way, I could very well have still been dealing with shitty farmers and loving every minute of it!). Honestly though, loving working at NDARC. Some of the loveliest people I’ve come across and I get to continue being the grand old dork I am which is awesome.

* Thanks to all that garble above (which essentially comes to, I’m steadily and somewhat securely employed again, yay for pera!), 2 things that I’d never really imagined myself doing were able to come about – my actually getting a mortgage broker and looking into real estate (hello, adulthood!) and my upcoming trip to Europe! Yeaaaah, son! Though both endeavours have come with their dramas, I’m still pretty excited all round. I feel I’m repeating sentiments I expressed back when I updated about planning for New York so hey, hurrah for the instances when life catches you off guard in a good way!

* So all that guff above about being more creative than ever lately, well, I’ve got quite a few writing projects going at the moment which is all kinds of awesome. I’m admittedly grunting my way through it at times, but that’s just a testament to how out of practice I’ve been! Meanwhile, in further aid of allowing myself more creative freedom, I’ve signed up for a couple of Voiceover e-courses. Acting sans audience – the dream! What I’ve done thus far has definitely been fun and actually helpful in its own right for helping me better brave and discover character voices, not to mention the voice exercises are just as useful for singing as they are for speaking clearly so woohoo! And of course, there’s the music. I’m singing and playing more songs than ever and coming up with more little tunes on my lovely, lovely piano (my baby) and actually remembering to record them! Cheers to the likes of Silvestri, Newman, Giacchino, Hisaishi et al for allowing me the opportunity to imitate and hopefully find something of my own sound among all the copycatting!

* Lastly, I’m glad I’m even bothering to update this thing. I hope to write more of substance but for now, it’s alive again. It’s breathing again. Sure, those breaths are a little halted – somewhat representative of the writer’s own erratically asthmatic existence – but hopefully this surprisingly and aptly short-winded shot of compositional Ventolin will keep it going. Here’s to!

USA... USA... USA... 2015

... well, hopefully anyway.